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September 27th 2015 – Don’t Miss it: Superbloodmoon

A total lunar eclipse is sometimes referred as a Blood Moon due to the reddish-brown hue the Moon takes when passing in Earth’s shadow. So why “Super“? The Moon has an elliptical orbit around Earth, with the distance varying by 20,000km between the closest (perigee) and farther (apogee) approaches. When there is a full Moon during its closest approach it’s called a Supermoon. The result is a Moon that is 14% larger in area and 30% brighter than at apogee.

September 27th 2015 happens to be special because both events will take place at the same time: a total lunar eclipse at perigee. Last time that happened was nearly 30 years ago!